Kuzuko Lodge Private Game Reserve thicket restoration project

This project achieved validation to the CCB Standards Second Edition, Biodiversity Gold Level, on 05 September 2013; expired 04 September 2018.The project is restoring more than 5000 hectares of degraded thicket vegetation in the Kuzuko Lodge Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The restoration entails planting cuttings of the indigenous thicket tree, Portulacaria afra – commonly known as spekboom – into desertified landscape. The restored thickets will sequester approximately 2.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) over a period of 54 years.Additional benefits of the project include inter alia:• Restoring plant and wildlife diversity into the presently desertified landscapes.• Stopping the present extreme erosion of topsoils into rivers.• Greatly improving the functioning of water catchments.• Creating more than 100 jobs in a region with approximately 40% unemployment.